- Mar 4, 2013
- 126
- 22
- 81
Hello! My name is Teloka, and I'm living in Australia! I hope it's okay to make my first post here and not in the 'newcomers' thread, but I'm incubating an egg so I thought this was most appropriate. I've been reading many forum posts here to help me get set up, so I thought I ought to join, explain my situation, and say thankyou!
About two weeks ago I found an egg on the doormat! Just sitting there all alone, as though left by a stork. I looked all around for any wild birds; it couldn't have fallen from a tree as it was well under the verandah, and my best guess is with all the bad weather we have been having lately, motherbird decided to lay on the doormat because it was dry and safe. No birds came back after a day, and so I thought I would collect the egg and warm it, in case it was fertile, with no idea what it might be and expecting it to be infertile considering it had been abandoned.
I set it up in a home-made very simplistic incubator; a glass dish, with some damp cottonballs and a standing desk lamp to keep the temperature. I honestly wasn't expecting anything, but I candled it at day seven and lo-- circulatory system! I was so surprised! I can post a couple of photos of the egg and incubator if anybody is interested in that, but I'm not very good at taking photos of the candling.
I am now at day 12, and at my most recent candle there was a small dark pink embryo which danced around, and an itty dot which I think was the tiny eye. So cute!
I have some experience with hand raising and breeding/hatching parrots (have an Indian Ringneck Parrot and a Cockatiel), and I have raised ducklings, geese and guinea fowl before, but I have never incubated an egg from scratch.
I wanted to ask, I have been looking around at how to improve my home incubator. At the moment the temperature is relatively stable but it fluctuates by about 1'c celcius, especially over night. I try to keep it at 37'2c (98.96'f) by adjusting the level of the desk lamp, but it sometimes fluctuates to 37.8 (100'f) and down to 36 (96.8'f). I also am unsure if I am keeping my incubator too humid, I don't have any way to measure the humidity in there, but there are some droplets on the glass.
I also have no idea what the egg might be! It is very white, and slightly larger than a chicken egg, so I am expecting perhaps a native Australian duck. We have lots of Australian wood ducks in our area that visit our house and our backyard because we have a dam, and no wild chickens that I think could have layed it, but there are also some peacocks in a nearby street, and we get quite a few pheasants in this area.
It is very exciting! I really hope I can do good by this little baby, whatever it may be!
I'm very excited to be here on BYC and get a chance to talk to some people who might be as interested in my eggventure as I am (as I think those around me are tired of hearing about my egg already!) Again, if I've posted in the wrong area or anything like that, or if this post is much too long (I am such a rambler, especially about birds!) please let me know and I'll do my best to correct anything. ^v^
About two weeks ago I found an egg on the doormat! Just sitting there all alone, as though left by a stork. I looked all around for any wild birds; it couldn't have fallen from a tree as it was well under the verandah, and my best guess is with all the bad weather we have been having lately, motherbird decided to lay on the doormat because it was dry and safe. No birds came back after a day, and so I thought I would collect the egg and warm it, in case it was fertile, with no idea what it might be and expecting it to be infertile considering it had been abandoned.
I set it up in a home-made very simplistic incubator; a glass dish, with some damp cottonballs and a standing desk lamp to keep the temperature. I honestly wasn't expecting anything, but I candled it at day seven and lo-- circulatory system! I was so surprised! I can post a couple of photos of the egg and incubator if anybody is interested in that, but I'm not very good at taking photos of the candling.
I am now at day 12, and at my most recent candle there was a small dark pink embryo which danced around, and an itty dot which I think was the tiny eye. So cute!
I have some experience with hand raising and breeding/hatching parrots (have an Indian Ringneck Parrot and a Cockatiel), and I have raised ducklings, geese and guinea fowl before, but I have never incubated an egg from scratch.
I wanted to ask, I have been looking around at how to improve my home incubator. At the moment the temperature is relatively stable but it fluctuates by about 1'c celcius, especially over night. I try to keep it at 37'2c (98.96'f) by adjusting the level of the desk lamp, but it sometimes fluctuates to 37.8 (100'f) and down to 36 (96.8'f). I also am unsure if I am keeping my incubator too humid, I don't have any way to measure the humidity in there, but there are some droplets on the glass.
I also have no idea what the egg might be! It is very white, and slightly larger than a chicken egg, so I am expecting perhaps a native Australian duck. We have lots of Australian wood ducks in our area that visit our house and our backyard because we have a dam, and no wild chickens that I think could have layed it, but there are also some peacocks in a nearby street, and we get quite a few pheasants in this area.
It is very exciting! I really hope I can do good by this little baby, whatever it may be!
I'm very excited to be here on BYC and get a chance to talk to some people who might be as interested in my eggventure as I am (as I think those around me are tired of hearing about my egg already!) Again, if I've posted in the wrong area or anything like that, or if this post is much too long (I am such a rambler, especially about birds!) please let me know and I'll do my best to correct anything. ^v^